Manchester United’s darkest hour will be remembered on Sunday night at 9pm, as BBC Two displays the much-anticipated film, ‘United’. The movie is set in 1958, as The Red Devils look for their first European Cup glory. But the cause results in the loss of 23 lives in a horrific aeroplane crash at an airport in Munich, Germany…

United were aspiring to become the best football team in Europe, attempting to lift the newly formed European Cup (or today’s Champions League). Under legendary manager Sir Matt Busby, ‘The Busby Babes’ were fairing better than was expected of them. The side of 1958 were heading for European Cup glory, were it not for an air disaster in Germany. Fresh from playing ‘Red Star Belgrade’, The Red Devils were about to take-off for Manchester.

However, the visibility on the runway at Munich was deteriorating – forcing the plane to make three separate attempts to become airborne. It was on the third trial when the plane crashed. Snow and ice had covered the wingspan in a number of minutes, weighing the plane down and eventually leading to it leaving the runway grounded, crossing a road and crashing into buildings. 23 people died as a result, including 8 United footballers.

On February 6th every year, the Munich Air Disaster is commemorated. This year, The BBC decided to undertake a dramatisation of the events over 50 years ago. The 90-minute film shows the exploits of The Busby Babes in Europe, the tragedy that rocked the footballing world, and the rebuilding of the team that ultimately won The European Cup. The movie has already been criticised for it’s portrayal of the players, but we’ll just have to wait and see…


‘United’, starring Dougray Scott and David Tennant, is broadcast on BBC 2 at 9pm this Sunday.

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